When conducting activities such as underwater acoustic monitoring, large structural monitoring, or geophysical surveys, sensors are typically disposed at locations where such monitoring is desired, while a monitoring station is located remotely at some distance away from the particular area that is being monitored or surveyed by the sensors. For example, many kilometers of lines of vibration sensors (e.g., geophones or accelerometers) are used in geophysical exploration, many kilometers of lines of acoustic sensors are towed by ships and submarines, and other sensor modalities (e.g., chemical) may be envisioned in other applications. Currently, these sensors utilize electrically conductive channels for power and/or data. Complex power hungry electronics may be required at each sensor to synchronize and/or format sensor data for digital data communications. Analog data communications require long multichannel analog cables that are expensive, hard to maintain and repair, and are susceptible to Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI).